Quote:
Originally Posted by LadyEph87
It seems that no one's considered that identity is often a two-way street, and can/is often be a matter of performance as well. As we all know, what it means to be Dominican can be very different depending on who you ask. In any case...I'm intrigued by the strict definition of what it means to be Dominican that you seem to be employing, Mr. Lou. Given your position on the place of an ex-pat in the discussion of Dominican identity, I'm curious to know how the issue of political citizenship fits into this view. For instance, when one legally renounces the citizenship of his/her country of birth in order to apply for/receive the citizenship of another country in which (s)he resides, (s)he can legally claim that country. In this particular case, it would mean that a person born in the US that is granted Dominican citizenship is (at very least, on paper) Dominican. While I realize that this is generally not the case with ex-pats, I'm wondering how this complicates your ideas of identity. Similarly, in what ways does/can a person claim cultural citizenship? To whom do we grant (and deny) this right and for what reasons? How does your definition of "Dominican" account for these discrepancies?
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I for one totally agree with many of these statements above. In any event, Identity is and should be a personal issue. Its one thing to label ourselves, but when we label others and usually from our own biased perspectives we only complicate matters.
When I speak about Taino bilogical, cultural or linguistic survivals, I am in no way implying that all Dominicans are Taino. Even if they "look" the part, it is by no means my place to tell anyone that they are or are not. I believe that if Dominicans, given the pure facts as to all of their ancestries, lineages and histories, one would find that we would not see ourselves collectively racially. But as a Nation we are all Dominican, a tripartite Nation of people, whether one identifies with Spanish, Taino, African, and this includes of course recent migrations and people who have naturalized etc
all the best
Baracutei
